A Threshold to the Dark Side
by Dreamer Forever Ni
Summary: It was a typical day for Tomoe and Miki until they came across the suspicious corpse of a black fox. Not long after, Miki began to act strangely and became a dangerous being as the Spirit of a black fox possessed her. Eventually, Tomoe and Miki were pulled into the world of the demons and spirits, clashing against the spirit detectives.


(A/N: Edited due to the misspelling of a character, and included an additional paragraph. Enjoy!)

* * *

_'I've finally arrived... I've finally found her.'_

_The black fox pushes itself through the thick bushes, drenched from the torrential downpour; it sees the large house. It thinks, 'Her scent takes me to there, and my journey is completed at last.'_

_ A snarl is heard from the black fox when the invisible pain rips through its aged body; the body has reached its limit after a long journey. The black fox remembers how the prey and her family had the blood of the countless kill, including the fox's companions and family members. A shallow breath escapes from the fox's agape jaw, and he laughs when the grayness begins to cloud the eyes. The body tilts sideways, its legs giving out, and the fox takes in the comfort of wet grass after collapsing._

_The fox whispers to himself, "Soon, this land will be mine, and I shall use her blood to make it more beautiful... Soon, I will avenge my family. So soon, Tomoe."_

_The black fox becomes stills, then not long, the white roses came out of the ground, surrounding the recently decreased fox in the form of the ring._

_– –_

My name is Tomoe.

I'm an 8th-grade student at Sarayashiki Junior High School, and I'm a...

I stop reciting my mini-biography in my head and roll my eyes toward Miki, who gives me a thumb up in return and goes back to fixing the video camera on the tripod. We're both in her bedroom, and I sigh out of annoyance as I can hear her two large watchdogs barking from the outside of her bedroom window. Miki asked me to be part of her small document for her school project or something. I go back to rehearsing my lines, now saying them out loud, "I'm a horrible human being, and I should crawl back to hell."

Well, it's true; Ever since the middle school years, I used to wreck the school property with a bat, lit the textbooks on the fire in the library, and I even got into the fights. Of course, I got away with it because I live with my uncle, and he never punishes me. A year ago, I got a change of heart, and I guess I'm a semi-reformed school bully. Around that time, that's when I met Miki, my best friend.

Let me tell you about my friend, Miki: when you meet her, you know she's one of those girls who has both beauty and smart. She's blessed with a lovely black hair that makes people want to grab it and rub hair over their face to feel that silky hair, and she has those dark eyes that sometimes turn into light brown when the light shine upon them... That's how one of her lame exes would describe her eyes. I sometimes joke that she could be a model to pay off her outstanding library fines if she would ditch that tacky red headband and her glasses.

Miki sighs, pulling away from the camera as her dogs outside of her house haven't stopped their barking. She grabs ahold of her shoes, making her way to the door, and says, "I'm going to check on them; something's bothering them."

I scoff, letting myself fall back on Miki's bed. "It's probably nothing! Probably a dumb Squirrel!"

Miki shakes her head, frowning at me and responds, "No. I never heard them bark like that. It sounds like they're... spooked?"

Well, I can't let her go by herself; it could be an intruder or some creep wandering around in the background. Miki lives in the big house in the middle of vast land, so who knows what's lurking in the woods? Together, we step out of Miki's bedroom, and we go downstairs, yet we can hear dogs' barking becoming louder and urgent. Goosebumps appear on my arms, despise of the thick sweater I'm wearing, and I'm becoming tense as I try to look for something off through the glass sliding glass. We weren't prepared for it when Miki opens the sliding door to the backyard.

We instantly are hit with the horrible smell behind the thick bushes, like a straight-up sucker punch; that's how strong the scent is. I could feel both breakfast and lunch about to make their way up my throat. Swallowing the bile back and through the tears in my eyes, I squint my eyes to see a dark lump just beyond the bushes, and Miki sees it too. Before we went out into the light rain and through the backyard, we shove the piece of tissue up our noses to block the smell out, put on the dust masks from the garage, we make our way to the source of the scent; a massive rotting foxlike being, surrounded by the white roses.

I don't know how long I've been gaping at... a fox? Or what's left of this creature, it just left me unable to stomach this view.

I look over at Miki... Even she feels the same way I do, judging by her face crumbling up; she looks like she wants to throw up too. I walk back to her side, wanting to be far away from the dead creature. "So, Miki," I say to her, "You got a dead animal in your background… Got an idea what is it?"

She tilts her head, crouching in front of the dead animal, and murmurs thoughtfully, "It's either a fox or wolf, but it's too big to be a fox."

"Could be a dog?"

"Could be. I'm not sure, but no point of leaving it out. It's dead, and it seems decent to give it a proper burial. Come on, Tomoe. Let's bury it."

Hell no. Miki can feel my disgusted glare on her, watching her to get up to smooth her wrinkled shirt down. Miki stares back at me, her voice becoming stern, "We should put it to the rest, at least. I feel bad for it."

"Um."

I don't like it, of course. It is very horrifying-looking because of its body just literally became part of the ground, flesh melting away with its bone only standing upright as it's surrounded by a faded circle of black fur, and fangs are forever showed off with its black gums showing. Well, hell, it does sound even more terrifying now that I thought about it longer, but no. That wasn't it; something about that dead body doesn't sit right with me. I don't know why.

"We should wait for your parents. Gigantic thing like this... What if there's more of them, like a pack, lurking around in your yard? We don't even know what kind of animal it was! You live close to the woods!"

"We would know if they're close to our house. We do have two dogs at the house, remember?"

Miki isn't going to change her mind as she folds arms at me, and she twirls on her heel in the direction of the gardening shed next to her house.

I grumble and fumble for the cell phone in my pocket when Miki runs off to get the tarp and shovel. I'm going to take a picture of it, just for the heck. It'd make a hell of a story! After a quick shot, I kneel in front of the animal, then right away, it's the gray eyes of an animal that troubles me the most. Truthfully, it makes me nervous, even though it's dead. It's just that the eyes look so...

"Human-like..."

"What?"

I flinch, startled to hear her returning so soon, then I grab the shovel from the arms, Miki starting to unroll the tarp in front of the corpse. Maybe it is better to bury it; we don't have to look at it ever again. I mumble in Miki's direction, "You'll dig the hole, and I'll take care of the body."

"I got it!"

Miki, thank god she's wearing her gardening gloves because what the hell! She pries the body off the ground and rolls it over the tarp with no problem, yet the body manages to collapse even more with that eerie groan, bones now sticking up even further. I glance down to see the body left the red tree-like roots, my guts screaming at me to not get near toward the roots, then I just shout at Miki: "What the hell, Miki! You should have waited for me. You're damn lucky that it didn't spill guts..."

Miki suddenly shudders, rolling her shoulders back as if to shake her shivers away, and frowns at me, "Knock it off…Let's get it done, already."

I blink at Miki; I didn't miss her face going pale all suddenly, and I take one more glance at the fox as the guts still scream at me to get away from it. When I think of the fox's eyes, it feels like… something is just there behind the eyes. I grip onto the shovel tightly, hoping that everything will be fine when we bury the fox, right?

Together, we dig a hole that takes a while, and we push its body, watching it tumble down into the hole after dragging the tarp to the edge then tilting it over. Miki offers a small prayer as I silently throw dirt back into the hole with the shovel, and I'm already pushing the whole thing behind me, though I still see those fox's eyes, staring back at me.

– -

(Miki's point of view)

I smile, waving into the cam of the camera, and speak loudly, "Good evening! I'm Miki Aran, and I'm currently an 8th-grade student at the Mendou high school. Today, my friend and I have braved through a very spooky evening!"

It was the most curious about the dead animal in my background, especially an odd animal like that, but the strangest thing does happen. I couldn't help but be excited about it, even though it was still an unsettling sight when we came across it, especially to be so close to my home. We won't need to worry about it anymore as we did give it a proper burial. I'm more worried about my friend, Tomoe, as she remains silent as she hasn't said anything on the way back to the house, and now she missed her cue for the camera. I silently turn the camera off, and face toward her, thinking that she's upset by this whole thing.

"Tomoe... What is it?"

She looks up at me in surprise. I see that she is in due for a haircut; her short wavy light-brown hair is even more frizzy from the rain we're having, and her bang curled underneath her eyebrows, almost blocking her storm-colored eyes. She also looks tired with dark circles around her eyes, probably from one of her late-night romps with her friends again... Tomoe shrugs, half-heartedly smirking, and replies, "Just tired. I was out last night late again with a couple of pals."

I stare at her, then with a grin, I tell her, "Why don't we call it a night? I'll make an extra bento box; then you can come over to my school for some lunch."

Tomoe perks up; she now grins widely, and she slaps her hands hard onto my shoulders as she happily says, "Yeah, sure! I have to go home and clean up, anyway; my uncle is going to see me next week."

She winks at me, sticking her tongue out, then Tomoe becomes serious, her suddenly steel-cool eyes staring at me. "Be safe, alright? There might be more of them, just…lurking around in your backyard."

"You don't have to worry about me, Tomoe."

Tomoe only frowns, drawing back to fold her arms against her chest. She always is a poor liar since she wears her emotions on the sleeve, so I have to reassure her since she is bothered by this dead animal: "Alright, the dogs will stay in the house with me, and I'll tell my dad about the animal, first thing tomorrow morning."

"Alright."

I stick my tongue out at her. She blows the raspberries at me in return, a sign of her going back to her old self, and we bid goodnight to each other. I even tell her to dream about Shuichi Minamoto if it gets her a good night's sleep, to which she looks sheepish about her crush on him. I wave at her a goodbye when she takes off on her bicycle, and as she's out of the sight, I feel exhausted. It has been an odd day...

Sighing, I'm already missing the warmth of the hot shower, stepping out of the bathroom and into my bedroom with a towel wrapped around my body. To my surprise, my cell phone starts to ring from the top of the desk next to my bed. I step over one of my dogs, and I frown at the other dog coming into my bedroom through the opened bedroom doorway. I immediately close the door, then skip to the bed, then answer the phone. "Hello?"

"Oh my gosh, Miki! I've just won a couple of rounds at Pachinko! I ran into Yusuke and Kuwabara a few hours ago, and we have been hanging out, so-"

I groan into the phone, rubbing my forehead. "Tomoe, it's late."

I remember Tomoe telling me about Yusuke and Kuwabara, though I'm not clear on details; they used to get in a fight with each other in Tomoe's pre-bullying days. They're friends now, or more like gambling buddies.

"Yeah, well! Expect me to pay for ice creams, someday! Or if you really want to get fancy, we can go to that bakery-"

I heard an upset voice in the background, another person laughing along with it: "One more round!"

"Gotta go! See you tomorrow!"

I chuckle when she ends the phone call, walking around my room, and then place the cell phone back into the backpack. She was probably checking on me in her discreet way; she worries too much. I close the bedroom door, then I stop. Didn't I close the door not too long ago? I'm sure I did... Then I brush that worry away when I see my dogs are snoozing away on the rug. There's no need to worry.


End file.
